Microchip gives Blind chance of sight
From: NewsLink - April/May 2002 - page 6

A computer chip implanted near the retina is well on its way to offering some
restored vision to people blinded by eye diseases such as retinitis
pigmentosa and age-related degeneration of the eye. The implant works for eye
diseases where healthy retinal neurons remain intact after they lose use of
the eye's photoreceptors, which convert images into electric impulses. 

Funded by the Office of Naval Research, researchers recently reported that
tests show faces can be recognized and words in large type can be read. Human
tests started recently. Dr. Mark Humayun, formerly of the Wilmer
Opthalmological Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is
leading research at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. 

To capture images, first an external camera mounted in an eyeglass frame
captures the image and converts it to an electrical signal that is
electronically transmitted to the flexible silicon biochip surgically
attached near the retina. The chip electronically stimulates the healthy
cells of the retina, which sends the signals conveying the image to the brain. 

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-01/oonr-mgb012402.php
http://www.onr.navy.mil/news/to%5F3%5F02.htm
http://www.onr.navy.mil/news/to%5F1%5F02.htm
http://www.fightingblindness.ie/The%20Artificial%20Eye.htm
http://www.irp.jhu.edu/project/index.htm
http://unisci.com/stories/20004/1206004.htm